Iran vowed revenge yesterday after Israel’s missile blitz on Tehran destroyed up to 20 key military sites, including a top-secret research facility.
Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran had ‘no limits’ in defending its interests and was obliged to take retaliatory action.
But amid relief that nuclear and oil facilities were spared, the US said the air strikes – themselves retaliation for Iran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month – should signal the end of direct conflict between the two countries.
The pre-dawn strikes killed two Iranian soldiers and two others and marked the first time Israel has openly attacked the country.
Dozens of fighter jets hit ballistic missile factories, air defence batteries and missile launchers. Israel launched a simultaneous attack on military targets in central and southern Syria.
Among the pilots and navigators involved in the Iran strikes were a number of women, praised by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for their bravery.
It is thought the secret research base near Tehran was developing ‘kamikaze drone’ technology, designed to loiter over a target until instructed to attack.
Officials said some of the facilities hit made the missiles fired at Israel on October 1.
The ‘precision strikes’ raised tension at a time of spiralling violence across the Middle East, where militant groups backed by Iran – including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – are already at war with Israel.
US President Joe Biden was forewarned before the strikes and said it looked like ‘they didn’t hit anything but military targets’. He added: ‘I hope this is the end.’
Iran hadn’t faced a sustained barrage of fire from a foreign enemy since its 1980s war with Iraq. Explosions could be heard in Tehran until sunrise.
On October 1, Iran launched 180 missiles into Israel in retaliation for blows landed against Hezbollah. They caused only minimal damage and a few injuries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had ‘made a big mistake’.
Israel is also widely thought to be behind a limited air strike in April near a major air base in Iran that hit the radar system for a Russian-made air defence battery.
And Iran fired a wave of missiles at Israel later that month, causing minimal damage, after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli air strike on an Iranian diplomatic post in Syria.
